An epidemiological study to know the prevalence of deleterious oral habits among 6 to 12 year old children.

BACKGROUND This study was taken to assess the prevalence of deleterious oral habits among 6-12 year old school going children. MATERIALS & METHODS A sample size of 832 children was finalized with simple random sampling technique including 444 males and 388 females. To get the demographic information and presence of harmful oral habits a closed-ended questionnaire was developed. Clinical evaluation was also done using mirror and water tests. Chi-square test was done to compare the prevalence of oral habits among different age groups and gender at p<0.05. RESULTS Bruxism (17.3%) was most commonly seen followed by bottle feeding (10.1%), thumb sucking (8.7%), nail biting (5.8%), tongue thrusting (4.9%) and mouth breathing (4.3%). Prevalence of all deleterious habits were more among female children and it also showed significant differences according to age. CONCLUSION The data showed high prevalence of these oral habits. This highlighted the need for preventive orthodontic treatment at early age of life so that future occurrence of malocclusion can be avoided. How to cite the article: Garde JB, Suryavanshi RK, Jawale BA, Deshmukh V, Dadhe DP, Suryavanshi MK. An epidemiological study to know the prevalence of deleterious oral habits among 6 to 12 year old children. J Int Oral Health 2014;6(1):39-43.